Andaman fishermen get distress alert transmitters

Fishermen in the Union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands were given distress alert transmitters by the Coast Guard today.

Around 69 fishermen of Middle Andaman were given the distress alert transmitters by the Coast Guard at a function at North Andaman in the presence of Andaman and Nicobar chief secretary Shakti Sinha and IG (Coast Guard) KC Pande.

Speaking on the occasion Sinha said the device would definitely enable fishermen of these Islands to project themselves in times of distress at sea and also help Coast Guard to rescue fishermen with minimum time delay.

Pande said that earlier under phase I 62 transmitters were distributed to the fishermen in  the year 2008-09 and during the present phase II another 69 are being distributed to local fishermen free of cost.

He said that the distress alert transmitter is a state of art life saving device developed by Indian Space Research Organisation in collaboration with the Coast Guard for the safety of fishermen at sea.